Acting locally
Lessons learned from a decade of activism
It's been another hurry up and wait week, with a bunch of projects in the works and nothing at a point where I can write a full post on it. I thought I was going to have to run with "another chance to read" or "coming attractions", but then I remembered that I owe you another post in an occasional series on local activism. All of these things I'm waiting for have one thing in common; they're all the result of weeks, months, or even years of local activism. In Earth and Ocean Month, I wrote:
This post, and others I've written about community, have really got me thinking about community and activism and how to get involved in a way that makes a difference. While it's clear that I live in a special place that makes it easier to get involved, I do believe that some of what we have here is teachable and transferable. I'm planning a follow-up post on that.
This is that follow-up post. I'll look at some of the projects I'm engaged in, from hyperlocal to state level, and the different challenges in spurring action.
A couple of weeks ago in "You might want to move your wells", about the effort to consolidate two local water systems, I wrote:
While this post is nominally about drinking water, one of my special interests, there are broader lessons here. It's also about the challenges of spurring community action to protect and enhance a common pool resource against a backdrop of rugged individualism and private property rights.
The two water systems have come to a point where consolidation no longer seems alien or controversial. We've moved on to figuring out how to get our members to "yes", and have a few meetings on that this week. I'm looking forward to the post where I write that we've agreed, but I'm not going to predict when I'll be writing it!
Meanwhile, just when you thought it was safe to drink the water, another neighboring water system has run into serious issues with bacterial contamination and aging infrastructure, and has been on a boil water advisory for several months. The State Department of Health advises them to consider consolidating with a neighboring water system, for example ours. Several friends and neighbors in that system have reached out for advice. The idea of consolidation is meeting stiff resistance from others within their community. Even as they're forced to drink bottled water, they feel that the neighboring systems are somehow even worse, and that consolidation would mean taking on their problems.
The neighborhood level can be the most challenging at which to encourage action. While in other community groups, people are brought together by a common interest — the environment, say, or music — within a neighborhood we often feel we have nothing in common but our proximity. My own, for example, varies widely in socioeconomic status, from Seattle tech titans with weekend homes, to long-time islanders on fixed incomes, and our political views cover the spectrum. Many second homeowners are less engaged in the broader island community and lack the local networks and sense of place that are our glue. Nevertheless, we face common problems from sea level rise to our water system concerns, and these problems demand a community, rather than an individual, solution.
With media, political, and business landscapes that seek to define us by our differences, motivate us through fear, and promote the transactional over the relational, building the necessary trust and consensus in such a community is a long game. I hope we have enough time.
Moving up to the County level, later this week I'll be representing the Whidbey Island Water Systems Association in three stakeholder workshops on sea level rise, groundwater, and heat, as part of the Climate Resiliency Sub Element of the Island County Comprehensive Plan, the County's state mandated long-range planning document.
I know I write often about how I'm not on those boards any more, and it's true, I'm really not! But, of those I've served on, WIWSA remains the stickiest. Somehow, I still go to the board meetings and volunteer for the occasional job. All that time I spent on boards and committees has left me part of a network of great people working on water and environmental issues. It would be a shame to let that all go.
Most of the staff present at the workshop and many of the other stakeholders know each other, which should make for a productive session. The chances are good that we'll coalesce around a set of proposals, but the fight only starts there. It then becomes an issue of getting our wishes accepted by our county commissioners, which is another reason to pay attention to local races on election day.
Our local race is a nailbiter, for unexpected reasons. We're a solidly blue district, so blue that the two democratic candidates in the primary — the incumbent and a challenger — prevailed over two republicans to finish in the top two spots. In Washington's open primary system, that means they go through to the general election. Spoiler alert. Literally. While defeated primary candidates cannot run as a write-in candidate in the general, another candidate can. And so, out of right field we have a republican write-in candidate who could get enough votes to split the democratic vote and prevail. I'll be smashing that refresh button on election night.
BikeWhidbey is a relatively new local volunteer group looking to promote bicycle infrastructure and safety on the island, and is still figuring out its place in the community. Earlier this week, a few of us attended a presentation on the IRTPO - Island Regional Transportation Planning Organization, a group that is working on a safety plan to reduce traffic fatalities and serious accidents. We were able to inject some concern for cyclists and pedestrians into a plan that mostly leans towards motor vehicles.
Increased development in the rural zone, more traffic, larger cars and trucks, and mainland driving habits are all stressing our road network and making cycling and walking more challenging. We'll need to work on a broader front to change the culture at our public works department and make them more bicycle and pedestrian aware, not just on major projects, but during routine maintenance.
The City of Langley hosted the meeting, which gave us an opportunity for an informal chat afterwards with the mayor and public works and planning directors, all friends of ours. We had a great conversation on how to influence elected officials. I gleaned these tips, which also apply to the discussion on the comprehensive plan above, and which you may find are equally applicable in your jurisdictions.
How to influence local politicians:
Use a rotating cast of characters, the more the better
Show up at a commissioners (council, board...) meeting with different people each time
Look at the calendar and agendas and make sure the relevant department is on the agenda for that day and is actually going to have staff there
Submit a public comment
With luck, the elected officials will ask staff to respond to your comment
With that in mind, talk to staff first and let them know what you're going to ask so that they can prepare. It's never good to blindside them in front of their bosses! You can say things that staff can't, a fact that can help you both.
Better yet, don't involve the politicians at all if it's something staff can do!
Moving on up to the state level, I've been working on PFAS in drinking water for quite a while. You can read all the PFAS posts to date here: PFAS posts. Lately, I've been engaged in trying to facilitate testing for PFAS in private wells near public water systems that have tested positive for PFAS of other than military origin. After several months of phone calls and emails, I've managed to orchestrate a meeting between EPA Region 10, the Washington State Departments of Ecology and Health, and me, at the end of this week.
The emails and phone calls yielded results in part because of the months and years of relationship and trust building with individuals at these agencies, and then working to connect them to each other. Working at this level is quite different. A lot of it is network building and connecting people. Our agencies can be very siloed, not only between them, but within an agency. Part of this is because of the ways our laws are written and implemented. Ecology, for example, has separate programs to implement the Clean Water Act and the Model Toxics Control Act, while the Safe Drinking Water Act falls under the Department of Health. An issue like PFAS cuts across all of these agencies and programs who are not used to talking to each other. Because each program looks at one piece of the problem, it's easy for some things — like testing private wells — to fall between the cracks. Sometimes it takes someone standing outside the agencies to see the big picture.
I hope to have a detailed report for you next week, along with some other recent PFAS news. There has been quite a bit, particularly on the military and legal fronts.
Almost a year ago, in Online Communities are a Lifeline, I wrote:
I found myself being called into leadership positions in some volunteer community organizations. My experiences at school and in corporate life had led me to conflate leadership with hierarchy and authority, and left me reluctant to step in. I needed to find a model of leadership that might work for me. Some rabbit holing eventually led me to a weekend workshop on Authentic Leadership that looked to be a good fit and was happening close enough for me to drive to. I signed up, and spent a weekend being pushed gently out of my comfort zone. I came away with an understanding of leadership as holding space. I'm no longer afraid of leading from wherever I am in the room.
Members of the group still meet monthly on zoom and occasionally in person, and are an important part of my life.
It took other people pointing it out for me to realize that my signature skills are connecting ideas and connecting people to find creative solutions to problems. As I described in Going to the forest, I've had to figure out for myself that I do that best when I'm working independently, and not beholden to any organization.
Leadership works best when people don't know you're doing it. For me, it seems, it works even better when I don't know I'm doing it either!
Thanks, as always, for reading or listening. If you value my work and feel moved to support it, a paid subscription to Mostly Water is a great way to do that.
An absolute resource! Thank you for writing this. I love, love, love your focus on community for all while also cultivating your own, so beautiful!
I enjoyed these updates John. Thanks for all your PFAS work. While you were doing the work, I was having PFAS nightmares from my realm of health/HIV activism. It always seems like a fight to do the most decent and relational thing. It is disheartening when leaders/lawmakers have hands (and feet and soul) in deep pockets. They often do not represent constituents. Political activism seems daunting and even futile sometimes.
A consideration when dealing with any activism is how well-received we activists are or are not based on gender and race. I appreciate you using your platform to advocate for those of us with little to no voice.
I have been thinking a lot about the definition of leadership these days and hope we can redefine what it means to us all especially during polycrisis. I bet if we take a poll, we will get thousands of definitions. I like yours- modeling seems like a great form.